Tuesday 2/5/19 Bell Ringer: Alfred Wegener proposed continental drift in 1912. He based his hypothesis in part on the shapes of the continents. How do you think we knew the shape of the continents in the early 1900s?

How did we create maps before planes & satellites? The oldest known maps are preserved on Babylonian clay tablets from about 2300 B.C.

The first whole-world maps began to appear in the early 16th century, following voyages by Columbus and others to the New World.  Surveying is a way to collect data on the land to create a map. Surveyors use compasses, measuring chains, and optical equipment for measuring altitudes and distances World Map

Wegener’s Puzzling Evidence Task: identify and analyze evidence to understand Wegener’s hypothesis of continental drift.

HYPOTHESIS OF CONTINENTAL DRIFT Proposed by Alfred Wegener in 1912 Approximately 200 million years ago, all of the continents were combined into one super-continent called Pangea Continents gradually drifted apart to where they are today

Observations lead to questions… Mesosaurus, an aquatic reptile whose fossil remains are only found in eastern South America and southern Africa. If Mesosaurus had been able to swim well enough to cross the vast South Atlantic Ocean, its fossils should be on other continents. This is not the case.

Fossil Evidence Step #1: Label the landmasses with their continent name (1 of them is a country, not a continent.) Write list of choices for continents on the board 20 minutes

Fossil Evidence Color code the fossil evidence based on the key Cut out the landmasses. Create a supercontinent by matching up the fossil evidence & placing the landmasses on a page of your spiral (hint: turn your spiral horizontal) Raise your hand to have your placement checked. Glue the landmasses into your science notebook. Take out a piece of paper and complete the writing prompt. Turn in when you are finished. Not all classes finished this.

Wednesday 2/6/19 Notebook Entry: One of the fossils that Wegener examined was the tropical plant Glossopteris. Fossils of this plant’s leaves and seeds have been found on Antarctica. Why would it be strange to find a tropical plant fossil in Antarctica?

Fossil Evidence Create a supercontinent by matching up the fossil evidence & placing the landmasses on a page of your spiral (hint: turn your spiral horizontal) Raise your hand to have your placement checked. Glue the landmasses into your science notebook. Take out a piece of paper and complete the writing prompt on a separate piece of paper. Turn in when you are finished. You will have until ________ to complete this or it will become homework. If you finish early start on the reading homework. 15 minutes

There was other evidence later on that helps us to understand how the continents fit together. We’ll be looking at some of that evidence today. Notice on the map the fossil evidence. Also notice the other evidence.

Glacial Deposits Folded Mountains with Matching rocks Two other types of evidence that we now have to support Wegener’s theory of continental drift, including: Folded mountains- where two plates are crushed together, causing the rock to bend. We see the continuation of this range on both south america and africa. Glacial deposits- Does it surprise you to know that there was once a glacier in the middle of what we call Africa? Or one covering Australia? After glaciers are gone from an area, they leave behind signs that they were there, like these glacial deposits. We can find glacial deposits on certain parts of the world, telling us these areas were once much colder and covered by large glaciers. Pass out map Glacial Deposits

On our maps, we’re going to draw and label where the folded mountains and the glaciers are. On our map, it doesn’t show much, right? It just makes these two things look really unrelated. However, look at your map in your notebook. If you drew these on that map, would they be next to each other, just like the fossils? Glue the other map over the top, like a flap.

Glue your world map into your science notebook by ONLY gluing the top two corners so it lifts like a flap over your supercontinent. 5 minutes

Homework Read and do pgs. 80-81